The central contention of the "New Atheism" of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens is that there has for several centuries been a war between science and religion, that religion has been steadily losing that war, and that at this point in human history a completely secular scientific account of the world has been worked out in such thorough and convincing detail that there is no longer any reason why a rational and educated person should find the claims of any religion the least bit worthy of attention. But as Edward Feser argues in The Last Superstition there is not, and never has been, any war between science and religion at all. There has instead been a conflict between two entirely philosophical conceptions of the natural order: on the one hand, the classical "teleological" vision of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, on which purpose or goal-directedness is as inherent a feature of the physical world as mass or electric charge; and the modern "mechanical" vision of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Hume, according to which the physical world is comprised of nothing more than purposeless, meaningless particles in motion. As it happens, in the classical teleological picture, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the natural-law conception of morality are rationally unavoidable. Modern atheism and secularism have thus always crucially depended for their rational credentials on the insinuation that the modern, mechanical picture of the world has somehow been established by science. Yet this modern "mechanical" picture has never been established by science, and cannot be, for it is not a scientific theory in the first place but merely a philosophical interpretation of science. Moreover, as Feser shows, the philosophical arguments in favor given by the early modern philosophers were notable only for being surprisingly weak. The true reasons for its popularity were then, and are now, primarily political: It was a tool by which the intellectual foundations of ecclesiastical authority could be undermined and the way opened toward a new secular and liberal social order oriented toward commerce and technology. To further these political ends, it was simply stipulated, by fiat as it were, that no theory inconsistent with the mechanical picture of the world would be allowed to count as "scientific." As the centuries have worn on and historical memory has dimmed, this act of dogmatic stipulation has falsely come to be remembered as a "discovery." However, not only is this modern philosophical picture rationally unfounded, it is demonstrably false. The "mechanical" conception of the natural world, when worked out consistently, absurdly entails that rationality, and indeed the human mind itself, are illusory. The so-called "scientific worldview" championed by the New Atheists thus inevitably undermines its rational foundations, and into the bargain (and contrary to the moralistic posturing of the New Atheists) it undermines the foundations of any possible morality as well. By contrast, and as The Last Superstition demonstrates, the classical teleological picture of nature can be seen to find powerful confirmation in developments from contemporary philosophy, biology, and physics; moreover, morality and reason itself cannot possibly be made sense of apart from it. The teleological vision of the ancients and medievals is thereby rationally vindicated - and with it the religious worldview they based upon it. ( )

not very well argued defense of Aristotle against contemporary science and atheism

Courtier's Reply, the book. Apparently, Platonic Ideals are compelling evidence that materialism is wrong, the mind is magic and immaterial, God exists as first mover and final cause.

Not sure how I got here, some apologetics link from long ago. I think Feser's trying for Dawkins snarkiness (a low bar, I know) but just comes off as bitchy in a pathetically irrelevant way. ( )

Dr. Edward Feser's book is one of the best ways for anyone — Catholic, Protestant, ... , atheist — to introduce themselves to the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas. By engaging a system of thought that heavily relies on modern assumptions (the new atheism), Dr. Feser effectively deconstructs the position and replaces it with an opposing, unified system that was popular for at least a millennium (classical theism). He rejects the over-exaggerated empiricism of "scientism" and replaces it with a more balanced system of rational inquiry, and as such is able to help the reader uncover the traditional understandings of God, the soul, etc., as framed within this worldview. After reading this book, you'll most likely become a Thomist — especially if you're already Catholic — and you ought to move on to his Aquinas: a Beginner's Guide. ( )

Quite frankly, this is one of my bibles – oft quoted and read for further help to master the philosophy behind my faith. There are rational proofs by which we can know with certitude that God exists; but the certitude of faith, which is based on the infallibility of the word of God, lies in Scripture

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’“
Exodus 3:13-14

Ego sum qui sum, is infinitely more reliable than all knowledge acquired by natural reason alone, no matter how evident it may be. In matters of revelation, error is absolutely impossible because the source of the knowledge of faith is God Himself, who is the Truth.

Not that long ago many of the current culture wars would have been laughed off as crackpot or extreme – now it is the faithful who are labeled such. To think that there was a time when atheists would have hidden their lights somewhat and said they believed in a “social gospel” and other code words. Now, Edward Feser, tells it:

“Atheist chic is now, out of the blue as it were, the stuff of best sellers, celebrity endorsements, and suburban reading groups. It is as if the urbane cocktail hour secularist liberalism of the twentieth century has, by way of the slow but sure inebriation produced by an unbroken series of social and judicial triumphs, now become in the twenty-first century fall-down-sloppy drunk and lost all inhibition, by turns blaspheming, whoring, and otherwise offending against all sane and decent sensibilities as the mood strikes it.”

Wow!

Mr Feser is not for those often called dissenting or cafeteria Catholics, and who more accurately might be dubbed the “Catholic Otherwise Faithful.” I may be Catholic, but I’m not a maniac about it, runs their unofficial subtext -- meaning: I’m happy to take credit for enlightened Catholic positions on the death penalty/social justice/civil rights, but of course I don’t believe in those archaic teachings about divorce/homosexuality/and above all birth control...

No, he has identified and written a book he tells us is about error: “what the error is, why it is an error, what its consequences are, and how correcting it reveals that it is a (certain kind of) moral and religious traditionalist, and not the secular liberal, who is the true upholder of reason.”

Somehow somewhere the skeptics have blown by with the false assertion that religion is based on a “faith” that they have interpreted in a bastardized sense as “the will to believe something in the absence of evidence.” The most important thing, Mr. Feser assures us, is that “a belief in God it … is true, and demonstrably so.

Similarly, the most important thing to know about same-sex marriage, for example, is not that it has been lawlessly imposed by certain courts even though a majority of citizens happen to oppose it. The most important thing to know about it, states Professor Feser, is that the very idea is a metaphysical absurdity and a moral abomination, and (again) demonstrably so.” These are things as knowable as whether the Pythagorean Theorem is true of right triangles, or whether water has the chemical structure H2O.

What Feser tells us is needed to counteract the anti-religious and libertine madness of our present time in this fallen world, is not “some crude populism or some short-term political strategizing, but a rethinking of the relevant issues back to first principles.”

So read the book, learn those principles and go forth to preach the gospel and the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Perhaps then you too will be greeted with those words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant”…

dj ( )